Air Travel Sucks Rocks

I travel very infrequently. In my youth, I had dreams of jetting about the globe.

I think jetting about the globe was significantly more sexy 20 years ago. The hard cold reality is flying is not nearly as glamorous as portrayed in Pan-Am, the short-lived blatant TV series rip-off of Mad Men. Mad Men is the bomb.  But that’s another blog entry for another time.

In this global society, the airlines can stick it to the consumer in the shorts and we are a powerless lot.

We are being nickel and dimed to death. $25 to check a bag. Really? All that does is encourage an entire plane full of people to bring a too big carry-on and jam it into the overhead bin. Then when it doesn’t fit, they can get the pink tag and have it checked under the plane…but without the $25. Bastards.

And then…there are the actual seats on the plane. Never have I paid so much to be so uncomfortable. Somewhere there is a group of masochists who work for their respective airline figuring out how many seats can be squeezed into a plan. Torture. Plain and simple. On my most recent flight I had an older lady with a very robust smoker’s cough practically sitting in my lap. I kept digging in my purse for my bottle of hand sanitizer. If only I had a plastic bubble, or a bottle of Lysol. Or both.

I’m not even going to comment on the food, drinks or the fake stewardesses.

Security procedures are an unavoidable annoyance. Now some airports have the new “body scanners”. I’ll admit. Not a fan. I felt uncomfortable being body scanned. Check your privacy at the door if you want to fly from coast to coast.

Any inclination I had about globe-trotting is officially squelched.

Commercialized Excess

I spent the better part of the weekend wrapping Christmas gifts. And when I was done, 2 days later, my living room was a practical example of Christmas commercialized excess. 

I know that society has been bemoaning the commercialization of Christmas  forever.  But for real. It's gotten out of hand.

I am not a practicing Christian by any means, but I do buy into the whole "Peace on Earth/Goodwill to Men" angle of the holiday.  The family aspect. The nice meal. The relaxing in front of the fireplace sipping a 1,000 calorie per glass of eggnog.  I am past the age of 12 and while I do appreciate a nice gift, it's not that important to me.  From my perspective, the magic of Christmas is for kids. 

While I do like buying a few well chosen gifts for close family and friends. There is a societal perception that one must pick up "a little something" for every person we come into contact with on a yearly basis in the spirit of the season lest you be labeled a Scrooge.  It's a layer of financial stress that I can't fully articulate. It has become a burden and not a joy.

This will come off as ungenerous and grinchy. So be it. I do consider myself generous and thoughtful gift giver but I'd rather do it on my own terms at any other point in the calendar year except the day when it is expected.  My thoughtful well chosen gifts are replaced with the mad dash of gift cards so I have "a little something" for a laundry list of names. And frankly...all those "little somethings" along with all the other expenditures of the season, the booze, the special Christmas dinner, the hosted events,  all add up to a big final total. A total that could be mistaken for a mortgage payment.

The commercialization of Christmas is real and it's exhausting.  The malls start with the decorations and the music before Halloween. Then there are the ads. The doorbusters.  The gazillionith rendition of White Christmas. 

As I write this, it's 5 days before Christmas and I, for one, can't wait for it to be over.  I am ready to settle down for a long winters nap.

Interviewing

I've worked for the same company for 21 years.

That's a long time.

Longer than I've been married.

Double decades.

Long.

For reasons, which are unclear, I decided to apply to promotion. Wait, you say? A promotion? Apply for a promotion? Aren't promotions usually just given when deserved.

Apparently yes...to everyone else except me.  Now I don't want to be one of "those employees" who thinks they are all that and a bag of chips and should be promoted because they are more deserving then other employees.  I've been around the corporate block long to enough to know that when manager wants to bump someone up the corporate food chain, it happens. Auto-magically.  There is a tap-tap on the shoulder and Voila! Someone (else) has been bumped into double digit profit sharing.  I have a combination of phenomonally bad luck and bad timing when it comes to "right place at the right time" career syndrome.

Oh. Is my bitterness shining through.  Sorry. I know. I know. Sour grapes. But it's my blog and if you don't like it, I'll take my ball and go home!

So there!

The quick backstory. My department has folks that have slightly different levels of the same job. A higher graded position opened and I applied. Same job that I am doing today - just more money. Truly. The same. The same boss too. Same. 

Now if my manager had her druthers she would have probably just promoted me already - but her manager,  who is a tool and has yet to befall a non-fatal but slightly disfiguring accident, demands that God and everybody be interview for this position.  This includes external applicants. Don't even get me started on how I will feel if this position ends up being filled externally.

And so I get an interview.

Interviewing is roughly on par with taking a mind numbing math exam. There is alot of pressure to remember the correct formula for the perfect interview. The right answers solved quickly and expertly delivered with the right balance of perkiness and positivity. 

I'm pretty sure being flogged for 45 minutes wouldn't have been as painful.

Then...to add insult to injury...as if this process hasn't gone on long enough, it will be another month before a decision is made.  I applied in July. Interivew in October...decision sometime before I am dead and buried.

Or so I hope.